As a tourist in my home-town

The little one was chuffed right from the time she saw the bags out. She knew in her heart we were going to do something really exciting. We were going back to Vadakencherry (hubby’s home) and she was going to meet her paternal grandparents after a 6 months long interval. 

Smera had been undergoing a week-long rigorous training to learn saying Ammachi (Grand Mother) and Appachha (Grand Dad). But that ended up as Ammeis and Appais. While saying Ammu and Chinnu (Smera’s cousins) was a piece of cake for her.

Smera loves going back to India. Vadakencherry or Delhi she just loves to be with her grandparents. She has met Ammeis Appais only a couple of times this year but when they re-unite it just feels like yesterday. This vacation was even more special with Ammu and Chinnu at home.

Day 1 was overwhelming for Smera feeling wary of her elder sisters’ affection towards us. Observant child turns then herself into a human magnet in my arms. Bursting with emotions of jealousy, anger and insecurity little Smera also wanted to play with her sisters. Things got better between as days passed and Smera felt more comfortable. For the first time she spent some quality time sisters and sometimes it became really difficult for her to keep enthusiasm within limits.

After a lot of wheedling and buttering-up I managed to get Appais to take time off to come down to Trivandrum. The grandparents, parents and the three kids then catch a midnight train that was part of my pre-planned break. Travelling in a train was a first time for all the three kids. The euphoric Smera had to be eventually reprimanded to lower her decibel levels.

We arranged for my mum too joined us at Trivandrum. This time we wanted to do what tourists would do in Kerala, headed straight to Kovalam and unloaded ourselves at the Taj Vivanta. Spent the next few days gorging on gourmet food, splashing into the pool, early jogs on the beach, boat rides on the backwaters, watching kalaripayattu, to making chocolates at hotel– we had an exceptional time.

Boat ride on the backwaters

To be honest we have never ever done the touristy things back home in Kerala and this was a first time for all us including our parents.

Jogging track next to the Kovalam beach

I never knew of this beautiful place called Pomudi which is about 60 kms from Trivandrum city. If you were off to Ponmudi you would typically take your first stop at the Meenmutty falls. The forest department would assist you with a guide, to take you on a 2 km trek through the dense forests to reach the falls. I reached the falls with great difficulty, I have to admit trekking is not something I really enjoy but the falls were spectacular. While my father-in-law aged 68 and my mum carrying Smera managed to trek with great ease than me and my athletic husband.

Meenmutty Falls

After the falls we drove though the narrow winding road on the way to Ponmudi, a scenic green hill-station with pleasant weather year-round. If you have motion sickness then you might want to skip this part by taking a nap, as there are 22 hairpin curves on the way.

Ponmudi

And to finish off our stay at Taj we decided to get our parents a little surprise - the must-try ayurvedic spa treatment at the Jiva Spa. My mother-in-law though got a little shock as she signed of the bill but it was definitely all worth it, while my father-in-law slept off half-way through the massage.

Few days break came to end with grand-parents and nieces taking the train back to Vadakencherry, while I and my husband quietly escaped to Sri-Lanka depositing our angel with my mum.

More on that in my next post.

Cheers!

Missed birthday in a really long break

Wouldn't it be nice if had a better explanation to stay away from blogosphere, other than just being lazy. When I started writing, now just over a year, I had big plans for my first blog anniversary. Well that moment came and passed by without my lazy soul knowing. 

Belated happy birthday Sangrywords!

I feel a blog that goes without a new post for long is like cheese cracker with out cheese. This will be a good time to confess that I love cheese and crackers. Now that is really cheesy!

I was away for my well-deserved holiday back home. And I had every intention of blogging as soon as my soul settled down. Sadly that didn’t happen for me, in fact our family reunion got bigger and crazier than I had thought-out.

Here is my vacation summary:

Dubai-Cochin-Vadakencherry-Trivandrum-Colombo-Nuvra Eliya-Kandy-Colombo-Cochin-Vadakencherry-Dubai.

Planning a revenge

Overnight train journey

Boat rides in the god’s own country

Exploring NH-47 in our Innova

More on them real soon!

Cheers,

Sangrywords

image courtesy: google.com 

Oh! for Orange

If there is an award for world’s biggest Orange fan then it has to be my hubby. Now I am not exaggerating! He can happily eat orange after his breakfast, lunch, dinner or replace all the meals listed above with Citrus. And that’s not all; if they are sour then it’s even better. Ok why is that a problem, you may ask?

Bored of peeling and eating them the old-fashioned way, he decided to get himself an orange squeezer. And one day he got himself an ordinary manual squeezer, where you would place orange and physically rotate the fruit to get the juice. He was very happy with it, which gave him fresh orange juice with pulp and no sugar. What more could he have asked for?

As the days passed his arms started aching and enthusiasm was also slowly diminishing. This would be the right place to apply the Law of Diminishing Mandarin Utility.

He then wanted to upgrade himself from a squeezer to a citrus press. So the search began with every weekend spent at every home furnishing store in the city. He found a few but the quality didn’t impress him much. Finally he founded just the perfect piece at one of the swankiest places in town. So with a heavy heart (read expensive) I let him buy that as an anniversary gift to himself.

Delighted with his newly acquired and improved juicer technology, orange juice became yet again a regular at our home.  While I have to admit I do enjoy it particularly if the oranges are sweet. And with that I thought it was a happily ever after story for me.

Then a couple of weeks back, our neighbour bought a top of the range juicer which did all kinds of stuff. When I told him the story he was still smug because even that juicer could not do what his citrus press did.  But I think that made him re-think that there could be better options available out there to get the juice out with-out making it half a work-out.

As things turned out, he got the perfect excuse when our vegetable chopper broke.  He tricks me buying an orange juice extractor with additional chopping functionality. It does not end there he now pressurises me not to use it for onion and garlic. Maybe all he really needs is to go to an orange rehabilitation centre.

I am sure reading this post his face will surely turn red or maybe even orange.

P.S. – Our expensive citrus press continues to unwind on my kitchen counter, waiting for a day when the electricity goes off here in Dubai for it come back in use.  

Image: google.com

Washing machine, dustbin and the case of missing cupcakes !!

Last weekend, my husband found a mouse in our washing machine.  Before you ask me if it was dead or alive, let me clarify - it was of the computer variety.  Now that I’ve killed the suspense, let me explain how the lifeless piece of electronics got inside our washer. It is once again my naughty 18 month old. Smera’s latest fascination is depositing random things into the washing machine and the waste bin. 

Oh, there is another development that has kept me busy over the last few weeks. My Gym routine that includes cardio to yoga and zumba to pilates – I am thoroughly enjoying it all (not!).  To add to the misery I was inducted to the new lifestyle by a sadistic and torturous personal trainer. It’s no surprise then I wait for my cheat (or ch-eat!) day – where you are allowed to eat (in moderation) whatever you want.

In the excitement, to cheat I bought lovely cupcakes only to find them resting in my dustbin. The culprit was none other than Smera. It's great that Smera is learning all about the use of dustbin at her playschool. Think they should teach her next how she should not be throwing the cupcakes in the dustbin on a cheat day.

But to hear the story that takes the cake, we need to rewind a bit and go back to the moment my husband discovered the mouse in the washing machine. Pulling the mouse out to the washer, he asked me to guess what he found in there. I told him what ever it is would not beat what I found in there the previous week.

He said 'Go on, what did you find?'
' A diaper', I answered.
'You mean, a used one?' He followed it up?
'Yeah' I quipped.
There was a pause and he retorted
'How used?'
I said ' You don't want to know'

There was a longer pause after that! 

My first guest post ..

A fellow indiblogger – Pramod Lohia, is trying to revive one of his two blogs. So when he opened Marriagebook.in for guest posts, I could not resist writing for his blog. As the name suggests the blog is on marriage and I had an interesting story to tell.

Do have a read and let me know what you think of it.  

http://marriagebook.in/total-filmy-2/

Cheers,

Sangrywords

At the end of the day ...

Since my little one started school, we've been falling sick. I am told it’s a regular feature in every household when the toddler goes to school.  So when I fell sick (yet again), my husband decided to give me some break and took up little one’s entire responsibility over the weekend. I have to say he is very helpful even otherwise, when it comes to helping me with Smera. The daddy daughter duo love to spend time with each other- be it 4am or 10pm.

A recovering child and my extreme cold and cough – didn’t sound like a wonderful combination.  I didn’t want Smera to again contract the flu that we have been passing on to each other. So when my man offered up to help me with in through this difficult state of affairs, I couldn’t help but to take up that offer with relief.

The weekend started off really well, they fed each other breakfast, played in the pool, went out to the aquarium– leaving me home alone recuperate.  Back after sundown, after a packed itinerary, all Smera wanted to do was to sleep. The ever-helpful husband took the little one to sleep and managed the task effortlessly.

Then came Saturday and both of them had fun again. Feeling proud (and a little smug!) of the two-day achievement, the Daddy offered to help her put to sleep again.

With a bottle of warm milk for Smera, daughter and daddy retired into the bedroom. Ten minutes must have passed before I went to check on the progress. As I got near the room, I heard two distinct yet familiar sounds – one that of baby talk another of a heavy breathing.

As I walked in to the room, I saw a restless Smera with the determination of a Duracell bunny, trying to wake a fast asleep Dad !

Guess Dad was so tired keeping the little one busy over a packed weekend that he slept off instantly while Smera had the charge to go on for some more time.

But hey, I could not have asked for a better weekend given the circumstances. It’s been a great two days of daddy daughter bonding and I got another story to tell Smera when she grows up. The day baby put Daddy to sleep :)

Super long wait !!

Childhood is really the best part of one’s life. I spent most of my childhood wishing to be a Super-girl. Time when most kids would aspire to be doctors or engineers, I had something entirely different planned out for myself. I could have taken the regular route – being doctor or engineer. A tradition followed by most Malayali kids, but then there were two problems. Number crunching was never my forte and then biology really sickened me. 

I tried a number of things to test out if I had it in myself to be Super-girl.

• Jumped from stairs, boundary walls to check if I could fly.
• Ate spinach hoping to release some extraordinary muscle power to bash up my brother.
• Walking after lights out at night – hoping that my X-ray vision will guide me through darkness.

Alas, all that came out of those escapades were a few broken bones and shaken confidence.

Soon I realised that I am just another girl, feeling dejected and disappointed - I decided to pursue other things in life.

When parenthood dawned upon us, I had a new found desire to try my hands on becoming a Super-mum. I thought just like my mum, I too would be a super-mum at managing our little Smera, our white tiled house, my family, work (which I do not do) and our life.

It’s no secret - everyone knows about my obsession with squeaky clean house and for the most part I managed pretty well except on some occasions.  My first eight and a half months of motherhood were fine and then Smera started walking! Suddenly my neat house suddenly started looking like a war-zone.

Tell you very frankly just like most mothers I tried to resist getting angry since that is what every kid does. Just then I started giving in to my evil side, while that had very little effect on my angel. With a sheepish smile and impish look from the corner of her eyes she would continue on her rampage. From spilling to crumbling, smearing food and even rubbishing the house with minutest pieces of torn paper.

After months of hard-work and patience, I finally have the power - my extraordinary Super-mum power. My 2 month-old power has rescued me from numerous panic attacks.

I am now unflustered even when I see her crumble a cookie, attack the tissue paper box or when she empties the detergent powder box on the couch. My little power machine can tackle all this and much more, leaving me with the Super-mum feeling.

It’s my hand held vacuum cleaner – cordless, bagless wonder. It’s so handy that I am going to be taking it on my next vacation!

Image courtesy: Corbis.com 

Dream, Do or is it the other way around?

Yesterday, I met a young girl from Sri-Lanka. Let’s call her Chandrika. She’s must be in her early 20’s and is working as a maid with a cleaning company here in Dubai. I can’t exactly place what it is, but I took an instant liking to this girl. Chandrika was accompanying my life-saver (aka my part-time help). We chatted up over a cup of tea and thus I became drawn in to her story.

Growing up, Chandrika wanted to be a doctor.  Yet, she was happy to settle for becoming a nurse.  She passed her nursing course with a first class and was overjoyed when she got a job offer from Dubai. The placement agent promised a position with a clinic and a salary which she could only dream of back home.

Shortly after that, Chandrika landed in Dubai to take-up the promised job. Quickly, she found out she was not going to be working in a clinic, but a cleaning company.  She had two options – to curse her luck or to make the best of a bad situation; she chose later. The silver lining is that she would be earning more than she would earn as a nurse back home, even if it meant cleaning toilets.

I know of so many people including myself who didn’t utilize the opportunity that was available for us. I am sure I could have been a doctor or something big, if only I’d put my heart to it. And here was a little girl, struggled to studying nursing and ends up working as a maid.

Life feels unfair to all those wanted to study and do something big life and didn’t have the opportunity to do so.  I feel the world would be a much better place, if some of us who are fortunate can help such people who have a burning desire to succeed.

Back to Chandrika, she is working on improving her English language skills. She spends her weekends preparing to write the nursing test that’ll help her get a nursing license in Dubai.

I am saying a prayer today for Chandrika and her dreams.

I’ve also signed up for helping a doer to dream – English Language Tuitions.

I am back !!

Just incase if you were wondering where Sangrywords has been for over a month, well then I have come back to the blogosphere unfortunately with nothing really exciting this time to tell. My family has been playing pass on parcel with viral flu. For over a month and boy it has been absolutely tiring. 

It’s different when you are sick and miss your mum, but what would you when you are the mum and your little one is sick. Little over a month back, Smera started pre-school and just like most kids, she too fell sick with this change in her routine. 

All was well when she recovered in a week, but then duhddudy aka daddy fell sick, the little girl who was well recovering from the flu fell ill again. And yes not to forget the mamma and then back baby again for another 2 weeks.

While this month had been plagued with the flu but it was just as bad as it sounds there were few highlights too:

• Smera started her play-school  and made her first painting in school
• My mum us visited twice this month and each time she cooked us a sumptuous meal and some more to last a week
• We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a wonderful weekend getaway to Hatta ( a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city)
• And we got the first complaint from Smera’s school for excessive use of the word daddy which reminded other kids of their dads and made them cry!

Image courtesy: Fotolia 

Dear daddy ...

To my Daddy,

A week in and I still cannot find the right line to start. Last week went by re-living my childhood memories thinking of the time we spent together, the jokes we shared, the fights we had, the lessons I learnt and the times you’ve been there for me (that would be all the time!).

You and I are so similar – when it comes to getting angry or having fun. I miss those days when we would watch Malayalam movies on weekend together without knowing the name of the movie and more recently when you and ma were here last year on Smera’s arrival. I miss those days when you would wake me up and rush me to get to school on-time, picking me up after college and discussing politics over tea.

Even then, it took me my first stint of living away from home to realise how much I love you and amma. But the best was yet to come - my admiration for you both are unexplainable in words now that I am a mother to Smera. It’s a tough task and you have all my sympathies now for all that I have put you through.

Of course there are numerous things I still need to learn from you. The one that tops my mind first is being disciplined, in life and more particularly about my health. Someone asked why are you so fixated about your weight?  Without a slightest bit of delay my answer was – “You have not seen my mom and dad”. Sometimes I really feel ashamed that I can’t even match half your energy at my age. Another thing I truly love about is your take it easy attitude, I know how much you hate the word tension, and just on this one occasion I wish if I was not like ma. 

Dad, I know I don’t say this very often– you are the best dad I could have asked for and I can’t thank you enough for giving us a good life.  You have given me a great mother and a wonderful brother and on your 60th birthday, I just want to say – I love you.

Happy Birthday!!

P.S. – I remember you got very emotional watching the movie Baghban and had tears in your eyes. Well that’s not going to happen to you, we are going to take good care of you. But instead you and me can author a hilarious comedy writing our life stories. Tell me what you think of it?  

Image courtesy: corbis.com